reading since may of 51.5 and ending three months of contraction. by the way, any reading above 50 indicates that business is improving. that news pushing the dow into triple-digit trading on the first day of the fourth quarter. then the fed chairman started speaking, ben bernanke offering his best defense for pouring more fed dollars in economy, and the markets pulled back. rich edson will have more on mr. bernanke's speech coming up. and the dow is still up, 161 points, that is the biggest intraday point gain, by the way, since september the 13th financial stocks leading the dow right now including, yes, the bank of america, america express, jpmorgan all having banner days. microsoft remaining the biggest laggard after two price targets cuts from jeffrey's and rbc. we've got traders at the new

york stock exchange, the cme group and the nymex. let's take a look at the cme, charlie needles, the cme. charlie, what a day? is it all on the back of the ism numbers? >> it is. you know, chi pmi came out overnight, and that showed things have stabilized there, in china. european pmi was in line, not lighting the world on fire. a little concern over the employment situation there. but if you look at the breakdown of the u.s. pmi, you kind of hit on all cylinders. the prices paid was actually a little higher, but if you're trying to reflate the market, that's a decent measure. it had been 54 last month, 58 this month. the employment sector picked up, new order sector picked up, but we did see an uptick in the employment sector. i think you hit it on the head,

ashley, that's what the market's taking focus on today. aaron ash all right, let's go to ben willis at in ncse -- nyse. does this point to a much better recovery than we thought perhaps? because i think there's still a lot of mixed data out of there. >> oh, i think we're a little ahead of the game if we're looking for the recovery, but as we just heard, the fact of the matter is most investors are looking at the headlines, you have to scratch your head because it's not very positive. it's showing contraction around the world in all the pmi numbers we saw, but what was interesting in the chinese number we did see a stabilization, particularly in their basic material groups, and that's one of the leading indicators on the s&p today. so if you look at the headlines themselves, not indicative of a tape, you would think the market would be much lower. that's the key point, and our ism numbers again surprised. we were finally above the 50

reading, that added to the juice that was already in place coming in from overseas because of what i just said. so that being said, we're still waiting for the effect of the stimulus, for the rest of the market to catch up. we haven't seen it yet. ashley: that's a very good point. cindy webster at the nymex, oil edging up. where do we see oil heading over the next, well, week or or so? what are you hearing? >> look, this is still a very headline-driven market, and, you know, the headlines are sort of positive today, so we were up a little bit. we're down from $100 only last week, if the news stays semipositive, i think we could see $95. i think we've seen the lows in this market for now. ashley: gold making gains as well, we're heading towards the $800. >> yeah, again, this is positive sentiment and new momentum, new quarter, all of that. ashley: charlie, back to you quickly. how quickly could the air come out of this as we look towards

that jobs number on friday? what are you expecting? >> that's what you're going to see on the charts here, ashley, that's a good point. an outside day, in other words, we took out the previous day's low and high. the si significance today is that comes to the 20-day moving average. the last time we had this same chart formation, it was back on august 2nd, and we took out the high of that day. so myself if we took out the highs tomorrow, i think you've got to go with it. it is a rather deeper trade. conversely, if today's low, tomorrow is negative that's indicative of a near-term i don't want to call it top, but pressure coming into the market to the low end of the trading range. ashley: all right. thank you so much. ben, charlie, cindy, we appreciate it for the floor show. well, my next guest says october will be the best month this year. joining me in a fox business exclusive, dan v.a. ruin, co-chief investment officer. you love october. we are now here, markets off to

the races, still up 100 points. what are the biggest reasons for your prediction for this october being so good? >> well, it's the global coordinated aspect of the liquidity coming from central banks around the globe, and secondly, many of the unknowables are about to come knowable. the election in the united states, whether you are a supporter of the president or mitt romney, it really doesn't matter. we're going to have somebody is going to be running this country on the first wednesday of november. ashley: you say you've never seen a time when investors are so cranky. what do you mean by that? >> well, think of this, ashley. the markets are up mid teens for the year. this is like a party that nobody was invited to when you think about it. that's because the general mix are really not overly invested in the market. they've gone much more defensive. we see that in the weekly flows into bond mutual funds out of equity funds. and the numbers are staggering. since 2007 the cumulative totals exceed a trillion dollars into

bond funds, yet the net outflow is out of domestic equity funds are approaching almost $600 million -- $600 billion, excuse me. ashley: but they're cranky, but they're also fearful, aren't they, of this fiscal cliff and a government overspending which many see as a huge, huge worry. wouldn't you agree? >> right. and the likelihood of our prolific friends in washington getting the policy right the first time is rather low which is why i think that the high for the year will likely be made sometime in october. and i think we'll see some sort of a pause and then perhaps a climb back up. ashley: you say a pause, there are many people saying this market is in need, desperate need of a correction, 5-10%. would you agree with that? >> well, it's difficult for me to be overly concerned given that liquidity is firmly in place, you don't have general participation by the public at a large, many pension funds around the country have moved to more defensive strategies, putting

more money into bonds. so where's the real extreme selling going to come from? there's also a large short interest in the equity markets right now, so hedge funds, by and large, have not participated. long/short, equity hedge funds have done quite poorly this year and way underperformed the benchmark and in many cases have lost money for the year. so that tells me these guys are going to have to play catchup right now. liquidity-driven markets are very, very difficult to figure out when that's going to end, and i would not want to bet against the federal reserve not just in this country, but around the world. ashley: very good. we're missing out on that party. [laughter] dan veru here for the hour, you'll be back. >> thank you. ashley: also, well, we'll be back to figure out how to best put your portfolio together for october. that will be interesting. the closing bell rings in about 52 minutes. coming up, rich edson has the latest there ben bernanke's

speech today about why more quantitative easing was, indeed, the right move. but first, we go live to the new york stock exchange and the cme group with nicole petallides and sandra smith who break down today's biggest movers. there's lots them, that's next. ♪ follow the wings.

♪ alabama ash the power moverover the hour is howl son coors. shares of moulson down today after the b and a announces it will combine businesses which will be called moulson coarse europe, brilliant, huh? the stock down 4% to 43.20, down $1.83 on the day, and the chart tells you you can see the dropoff, that's the one-year chart. okay. so down today. by the way, the concerns about growth opportunities for the new units of moulson coors also led morgan stanley to cut its outlook on the company as well. all right, the dow off its highs now dropping under triple

digits, still up 91 points. we have nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange, sandra smith at the cme in chicago. let's start with nicole at the nyse. nicole? >> reporter: thanks, ashley. i wanted to take a look at a big mover, nokia, up over 7%. a couple of things to note, they've agreed to give oracle customers some of the access to their mapping products, so we'll continue to watch that, and you know mapping has been such a big deal as apple has had such a hard time with the iphone 5. this is something interesting that nokia's doing along with oracle, and they've made some other deals with groupon and amazon. another thing with nokia, you can sees the higher today. the consulting and outsourcing group accenture has brought some internet protocol television assets from nokia, so this is something we'll continue to watch, and this will bolster the video capabilities of accenture, so two pieces of news featuring

nokia, but as i noted, that is nearly an 8% gain for this mobile phone company. certainly a big move on a day where we do have a rally, which we've lost some of it, but a great move for nokia today. pack to you. ashley: thank you very much, nicole. let's go out to the cme and sandra. take it away. >> reporter: hey, ashley. well, some of your biggest movers on the cme today were in the energy sector. take a look at natural gas prices jumping 5 president on the session. weather in the midwest, we're starting to see temperatures cool down, and heating demand is picking up, so matchal gas prices up 5%, hitting a ten-month high today. we're also seeing shrinking supply of some of those meat products, hogs, live cattle, these were some of the best performers today on the cme. by the way, the usda showing that wholesale pork prices rose more than 3% just last week. take note because that's when the consumer starts to see those

higher prices. and your worst performers down here today, wheat and soybeans. you saw an active trading pit just a few minutes ago, five out of the last six sessions wheat prices we have seen go down. there's been rainfall in the mid and, guess what? it's time to be planting those winter wheat crops, and can it's pretty good conditions, so prices have been going down. those are your biggest movers on the cme, back to you. ashley: the hogs are up, what i like to hear. sandra, thank you so much. let's shake it up with the team breaking down some of today ease biggest stories. rich edson, adam shapiro in new york, standing right next to me, and jeff flock is in elgin, illinois. rich, you've been all over ben bernanke's defense of qe3. i thought he had a lot of interesting things to say. break it down for us. >> reporter: really a point-by-point defense of all the criticism he's been getting over the years on quantitative easing and now the expansion of that, talking about some

criticism that low borrowing cost is encouraging the federal government to borrow and spend more money. he says, look, that's all set by congress and the administration, has nothing to do with us. he also talks about people who try to save money, put money in cds or bank accounts. he said overall for the economy savers will benefit by qe2, by qe3 because the economy overall will be better. he says he's not monetizing the debt. he says the fed will unwind all of this when it comes time, and he says he expects this type of monetary policy will be in place for a considerable amount of time after the economy strengthens. he also addressed a question posed to him by the fox business network asking whether or not the united states is currently in a recession. >> our unemployment rate of 8.1% currently is really about the same as it was in january. we're really not making progress, at least not this year. so our concern is not really a recession, our concern is growth will continue but at a pace that's insufficient to put people back to work.

>> reporter: he says inflation rates have been on target, though the federal reserve continues to watch that, and that the fed has the tools to unwind and watch inflation. ashley? ashley: yeah, interesting session today with mr. bernanke in indianapolis. rich, thank you very much. let's go to adam shapiro in the studio. adam, we're talking about a readmission tax talking about hospitals. >> yeah, this is a part of obamacare, it starts as of today. centers for medicare and medicaid services as of today going forward infiscal year 2013, about two-thirds of all the hospitals who have patients that rely on medicare for their services are going to get a fine of some sort, and it could be as high as 1% of medicare funds that they receive depending on the number of patients who are readmitted to the hospital for these procedures; heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia. now, there's a 30-day window. if a patient is readmitted within that 30-day period and the rate of readmissions at any

particular hospital is greater than the national average -- ashley: right, right. >> constantly fluctuating, then you could see this fine up to 1% this year, 2% next fiscal year, 2014, 3% in 2015. going to save about $290 million according to centers for medicare and medicaid services this year -- ashley: this is like penalizing hospitals who are being readmitted too soon -- >> above the national average. now, the hospitals are saying, look, some of these patients are not following the instructions. ashley: right, right. >> if you've had a father or mother and they've come out of their surgery well, they get bombarded with everything at the last minute. no one understands it. so the hospitals are going to have to do a better job explaining the medications. they do it just for the local pop olations and age, all of that kind of stuff. cbo says it's going to save, if you believe the numbers, it will save seven billion by the end of 2019. it's going to force independent

hospitals to join larger systems because these fines, it's a withholding of medicare costs, and it's going to be costly. ashley: yes, it is. let's go out to jeff flock in elgin, illinois. he's been talking pizzas all day in a revolutionary oven. jeff? >> reporter: this is what we do, ashley, is we find companies you need to know that maybe you don't know. middle bee is the company. all of this equipment you see surrounding me is food service industry. see that big green one over there? that is an oven. they revolutionized the pizza oven business. they're in pizza hut, dominoes, all the rest. i've got the president of the company, the group president here with the latest new oven, it's called the wow oven. you stick the food in one end, it comes out the other how soon? >> six minutes. >> reporter: incredible. and also they've got new induction technology, cool water there. i just turned that on. give me about 30 seconds, and that thing is going to be boiling. and you know what? it's something you take your

hand, put it right there, it's not even hot. but it will boil water in 30 seconds. they've got a raft of new products that focus on induction. and also one other thing, this turbo chef oven does both microwave and cooks it like a regular oven, makes it possible to crank out stuff super quick. this is a stock you've got to watch, midd. the final thing i leave you with, ashley, is they make all of this stuff in cook county, illinois, with teamster labor, and they still have the market just about cornered. if they can make it here, they can make it anywhere. ashley: they can make it anywhere, exactly right. equipment remember recognize you without a hard hat or hair net on. >> reporter: oh, look at this, boiling water! ashley: in 30 seconds. >> reporter: oh! ashley: thank you, jeff. and thank you, gentlemen, for joining us. all right, the closing bell ringing in just about, what, 39 minutes. coming up, charles biderman

tells us why he's buying companies with a shrinking float. plus, the stock names he's not shorting. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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all of us serving you. us bank ashley: all right, let's take a look at your fox business market check, checking out how the major indices are moving in today's rally, and we've really come off our highs, we're just up 59 points. we were up about 120 an hour ago. the nasdaq moved lower after ben bernanke was speaking, hasn't really recovered from that. the s&p basically flat right now, and the russell just about flat as well. let's go down to nicole at the nyse, just get a sense of why we're seeing this rally fade in the afternoon. >> reporter: you are.

and there's always that factor of profit taking, but the one thing identify noticed that's a significant change over the last half hour or so is the dollar. the u.s. dollar has come up off of its lows, the euro is losing its earlier strength, so you do have that inverse relationship. this comes on the heels of what we heard from ben bernanke. i always -- also want to give you a look at the most actively traded stocks. of course, we've been focusing on nokia, but the financials have been the real lightning rod of the market. but as you noted, ashley, we really have lost our earlier gains. we were at right around 13,600, but here's an intraday chart x i'm going wrap it up for you. that really sells you that quick sell ah, and, of course, we'll follow it minute to minute. the vixx index is still to the upside. ashley: all right, nicole, we'll keep an eye on it, of course. now, some big money republican donors looking to hedge their

bets away from republican presidential hopeful mitt romney to help republicans in key house and senate races. charlie gasparino has the exclusive details on the latest obstacle, it seems, faced by the romney campaign. >> reporter: i don't think you can sort of term this as a mass exodus yet, but what we're hearing from people inside the campaign, people that raised money from the campaign is this, that in the next couple days, maybe last week or so as those negative, as those poll numbers have gotten worse for mitt romney particularly in the battleground states, what you see is the big money contributors, and particularly i hear this is happening in new york, i also hear it's broader based geographically. they're starting to hedge their bets. a lot of people thought they'd start beginning to president obama. i hear they're not doing that, but they are diverting money that was promised to mitt romney and diverting it to these house and senate races where they think they can help republicans keep the house and maybe pick up seats in the senate, maybe take the senate. ashley: so they're losing heart in the campaign.

>> reporter: clearly there is a trend out there where they are, and the money is starting to shift. now, this trend is lot of people -- these same people that i'm talking to, i will say these are major fundraisers for mitt romney, and they raise for other people, republicans, and not only that, they are pretty tight inside the campaign. what they're saying is they think this trend could be reversed. what could reverse this trend? a really good debate performance. what could expedite -- and that debate, as you know, comes wednesday. what could expedite this trend? a really lousy debate performance. ashley: no pressure. >> reporter: you're clearly going to see republican donors, at least they have the sentiment, they've expressed the sentiment that they are -- if they can't take the money they already gave 'em out of the coffer, some of that money that they give to pacs and everything, and they have promised to those pacs, they can go other places. they're promises, they're pledges, they're not guarantees, and that's the problem that mitt romney faces going forward, that these same contributors are going to start hedging even

more. and it kind of builds on each other, you know? that's why these poll numbers are disconcerting. people used to say credit default swaps, the insurance accurates on those -- contracts on those big banks, they started spiking, and people were buying those things in preparation for problems at the banks, and all of a sudden the stocks would get crushed. it's almost a self-fulfilling prophesy. the stocks get crushed, firms go out of business. poll numbers go down for mitt romney, you know, even though lots of evidence to say tear not, the metrics for these polls are skewed, even so, people get scared, and they pull back, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. ashley: does the romney campaign call the donors and say, hey -- >> reporter: absolutely. it's isolated now, but there's a worrisome beginnings of a trend. we should point out that we talked to the romney campaign. they basically said, listen, a lot of our people have given already, it makes sense they basically put, you know, spread

their money around. we don't see that trend. i'm telling you, it's happening, and there's enough worry from people who raise money. now, those are overall numbers. we should point out that a lot of people say president obama spent a lot of that already, you know? that cash on hand is much more even. karl rove talked about that. but clearly, you know, romney has an issue here in the stretch. if, you know, if he doesn't do well, people poll, then it just builds on each other -- ashley: if they start to turn it around, wednesday would be a good time at the debate. >> reporter: that's a big day. ashley: great as always, charlie. well, the closing bell rings in just under 30 minutes. charles biderman says stocks have already hit their peak for 2012. coming up, he has got short and long plays to make sure you end the year with cash in your pocket. what a great idea. we'll be right back. ♪ ñ

>> stocks still higher in afternoon trading, but the rally is losing steam into the home stretch of today's session. the gains have been sparked by a better than expected ri form on u.s. manufacturing. the september report from the institute for supply management showed the sector expanded for the first time in four months. the dow hanging on to gaining at one-half of 1%. the nasdaq now tracking lower. on the flipside, a ratings downgrade taking its toll on ubs slashing the ratings to a sell

over concerns about weak land lines. the needs for asset sales to address its debt obligations also played a part in the downgrade decision. the airline's profit outlook is flying higher. the international transport association raised the 2012 forecast thanks to strong passenger numbers. they see $4.1 billion in profit, a third higher than the preves estimate. to continue the count down with ashley webster. ♪ >> thank you very much. heading down to nicole at the new york stock exchange. what's moving today? the dow is up 73, but way off its highs. >> right. when we look at what's going on with the dow jones industrials, one of the reasons we are on the floor is because i can go to, talk to traders who are doing their expert checking here and mark newton is one of those people, the technicals on the

floor, and he talked about the down trend we've seen since mid-september remaining in tact. the fact we tried to get a ben bernanke bounce, which didn't go, and we're selling off. that's not short term. it's not good news. that's what he says. they tried to give it a go with the averages, not able to do that. they were seeing two weeks of selling straight on, and that's the down trend he talked about. another trader talked about tech. if you notice, watching the markets today, you see the s&p and the dow johns industrials have been holding green, but the tech heavy nasdaq sold off, quickly went through, grabbed tech names, but you can see many of the names from advanced micro to seagate and apple in there, another name that's been selling off, and it's easy to find tech names under pressure here. the vix, as we know, the fear index, another factor. the dollar coming up off the

lows. put that all together, and we're waiting for a jobs report friday with another element of uncertainty to the market throughout the week. sometimes it's the wait and see. these are the elements they wait to see. what's that report was eluding to. thank you. ashley: no ben bernanke bounce, maybe more of a thud. still up 62 points. nicole, thank you. has the u.s. economy tipped into a recession again? well, there's now serious debate as wall street analysts and economists dive into the new economic data and what it shows us. liz, what are the wall street analysts saying? >> there's an interesting debate. how consumer spending hangs in strong, and, in fact, reported how ben bernanke touched the issue. he said, no, we're still growing, but, still 1.5% annual growth is not great. especially since we're in a recovery, a downward gdp

revisions, i stoppedded counting after 2010 the number of revisions, north of a dozen. the problem with the markets is this. here's the problem. the panelists, the guys who call whether or not we're in a recession, the national bureau of economic research, the umpires for the recession, they take a long time to call a recession. 1970, they waited eight months, over after the 2001 recession, it was called in 2003, nearly two years later. in fact, when the economy tippedded into recession, this panel, the nber waited until, yes, we are in recession, december 2007. that's the issue. ashley: they don't move quickly. >> get the rearview mirror in focus after the fact as one pundit said. again, we have to wait ten months down the road if we did, in fact, drop into a recession. in 2001, a revision dipped us into a double dip recession.

it's not out of the realm of possibility begin the business cycle has been turning. we see essentially economic activity dropping across the board. if you look at the federal reserves' regional surveys and business spending on durable orders declined over the past year. the fiscal cliff is dimming. it's dimming the economic recovery right now because businesses are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what dng -- dc will do so that's the point. ashley: we'll check back in eight months. thank you so much. appreciate it. wall street animal -- analysts are the only oning who think we could be in a recession. we have a fox business exclusive from beautiful san fransisco. charles, what do you think? are we in a recession? does it matter at this point? >> well given that, you know, the u.s. government is borrowing a trillion-two a year, and the

feds printing $800 million a year, and take-home pay up $300 billion annualized. think about that for a second. if we -- if we don't -- if we didn't borrow the 2 trillion or create it, we wouldn't get the $300 billion boost. we have to create $2 trillion to get -- imagine going to the loan shark saying give me $# trillion, i want to make $300 billion out of it. do you expect we're in the in a recession? it's because we're printing, creating huge amounts of money, force feeding it into the economy, getting a minimal amount of growth. ashley: artificial bounce. it's artificial, not grt anyway basically. charles -- >> throwing the future away. ashley: exactly. >> sorry. ashley: capital management, the ceo who believes this will be the month where stocks peak. you say the stocks peaked in,

well, mid-september. do you feel that way still? >> well, yeah. i think the stocks peaked the day after the fed announcement. remember when the pr guy who works for the fed, john -- also part of the "wall street journal", when he said there was a new easing, the market was up 15% from then until a day after the fed eased. we still have not topped the day after the fed eased closing price, and, look, today is october 1, first day of a quarter, what happens the first day of a quarter? new money comes in the market. if the market -- i don't know what it's doing now, but if it can't hold up, if the s&p and nasdaq can't hold up on the fair day of the quarter, we're heading lower. ashley: dan, do you disagree? >> one word i want to focus on in the fed statement, and that word was " indefinitely," and

when you think about the easing compared to prior ones, they are open minded and very fearful about the fragility of the recovery while, you know, gdp is obviously an average of a lot of different things. corporate profits remain somewhat solid, though i think, you know, they could be fading a little bit, but there's also the amount of money that's been invested by corporations in productivity enhancements. i mean, if we go by old guides of productivity, i remember allen greenspan saying in early 2000 productivity peaked back then, and here we are, more than a decade later, and we make new highs in productivity. ashley: charles, bringing you back in. i want to know what you like in this environment? what's your picks? >> i just want to respond to the previous guest. ashley: go ahead. >> all that's in the stock market are shares of stocks and

money. the market goes up because companies didn't want zero return on their balance sheet cash so they bought shares back. unfortunately, that stopped in september. september was the first month in the $20 billion more share sales than buying. insiders are now -- for the last two months, sold 1 # 1 times the amount of shares bought. the sell by ratio is 11-to-1. the engyps that run market up shrink the float. companies grow the float, insiders selling, and, you know, yes, the fed is easing indefinitely. that means there's no more fed easing to anticipate. without anticipation, why is anybody -- you know, i don't see how the market rallies here. i could be wrong, but that's what i think. ashley: dan? >> the universe shrinks in two ways, share repurchases and companies buys other companies.

3m bought another, and when the deal is completed because it's a cash dealt, it's recycled back into the market place. we're at the precipice of a super cycle. >> 20 # billion more than total buybacks and takeovers in the month of september, a huge number. >> which is why in a slow growth economy, the way corporations make up for top line growth, they go out and buy it with very inexpensive money curtesy of the fed, the high yield bond market, corporate bond market, convertible market. all of the markets are open, deep, extremely liquid, and there's a demand for credit instruments we chatted about earlier with the weekly inflows into credit type of funds, bond funds. >> they pounded on the doors of all the potential buyers giving them zero cost cash to buy other

companies, and we're not seeing -- we're seeing a dribble, occasional here and there strategic, you know, there's not a takeover way based on cheap money. not on these prices, maybe 1200 there would be, but not approaching 1500. >> respectfully i disagree. >> that's what makes markets. >> two years and nine months, there's been 35 company pes acquired with an average premium of 40% from the previous day's close. ashley: leaving it there. we could talk all day. i know that. print tabs investment research ceo, charles, thank you so much as always. allen, you stick -- dan, i should say, you stick around. i want your picks in the environment coming up after the break. the closing bell rings in 13 and a half minutes, and october will be the best month of the year for equities. after the break, he'll be back. three names you got to have in the portfolio if you don't

already. we'll be right back. ♪

ashley: fox business market check heading into the latest minutes hire before the close. the dow tough after dropping from the triple digit highs seen most of the day. the dow up 70 points, and nasdaq lower, and s&p essentially up a quarter of percent. up a quarter of a percent. all right. back with dan, pallisades

co-chief investment officer, and his picks are an optimistic october, saying it's the best month. look at the picks. we start with franco, nevada. >> it's a direct gold play. you get a dividend from it. it's not a miner where you have to worry about cost of extraction and other issues. they own leases to gold mines. ashley: up sixty bucks. you like this price? >> gold is volatile. it's a direct peg to the commodity, but given all of the stimulus, it's there. ashley: microsystems? what's this? >> anyone particular with restaurants, particular with the hose sties, take make the software and terminals around that, but the bigger part of the business is the reservation systems for hotel chapes.

there's an opportunity for marriot to buy the systems. because of advancements made, it really could be a real good growth opportunity for the business there. ashley: interesting. number three, new mount finance corp.. why do you like it in >> it's a company i own personally. it's a business development company. the shares have more than a 9% dividend yield. the company, new mountain corporation is a private equity firm started by steve, a very successful investor in private equity. the business development company makes loans in the middle market, that's sorely underserved part, still not come back from that. they are the future of the shadow banking system. given how their process works and careful analytics it's a great play on total return basis between dividend and appreciation. ashley: perfect.

dan, thank you so much. three good picks. thank you for being here. he's been with us for the hour. the closing bell in about six minutes, dow on track to close up, well, it's up 64 points. can it hang in there? the one stock whose shares are flying high today. we'll be right back. ♪

ashley: shares flying high, up more than 3% as options activity picks up steam on the bullish side. delta leading the airline sector

followed by u.s. airways, southwest, and united continental. the airline sector good today all pointing higher. delta up 3%, u.s. airways up 2.68% in a market that's starting to lose steam just a little heading towards the end, up tripped digits today, let's send it to david and lauren. david: we have lauren filling in today. good to see you here. lauren: hi, everybody. david: way did ben bernanke say that spooked the markets? >> well, you talk about ben bernanke today, obviously, he talked about the concerns that we still have about europe and the head winds remain, talked about the fact that printing money's not causing inflation, but there's concerns about the europe, and the key factor was the market committee overestimated our growth, and we know that to be true. we were not growing as fast as they thought we were.

lauren: it was a big day for tech, google with a big day. the company briefly surpassing microsoft in market caps? >> that was a big deal today. another factor here is watch that apple really drove the market to certain extent. it's heavily weighted in the major indexes. it was a winner earlier, a loser later in the day, a $20 range today. big move. david: talk financials for a second here, nicole. generally, focusing on goldman sachs, a good bet since it was down in the 90s. still a good bet at 116 where it was today? >> yeah, talking about -- we're looking at the names, financials in particular, i like to focus on goldman sachs in particular because the bear is down. they are saying they have 25% upside as capital markets improve. that's what they said in barrens over the weekend. lauren: tty